Import ChatGPT

What you need

A ChatGPT data export (ZIP file containing conversations.json).

How to export from ChatGPT

1. Go to chatgpt.com
2. Click your profile icon in the bottom-left corner
3. Click Settings
4. Go to Data controls
5. Click Export data, then confirm
6. Wait for the email from OpenAI (usually within a few hours, can take up to a day)
7. Click the download link in the email (expires after 24 hours)
8. Unzip the archive on your Mac

The key file is conversations.json.

How to import into Retrace

1. Open Retrace and go to Settings
2. Click the Data Sources tab
3. Click the ChatGPT card
4. Drop your conversations.json file or click to select it
5. Review the conversations found in the preview
6. Click Import

What gets imported

• All conversations with their titles
• Every message (both your prompts and ChatGPT's responses)
• Timestamps and message ordering
• Conversation metadata

Good to know

• No participant linking needed: ChatGPT conversations are between you and the assistant. Retrace assigns them automatically.
• Tree structure: ChatGPT stores messages as a tree (branching conversations). The parser linearizes them into a readable sequence.
• Export link expires: The download link from OpenAI expires after 24 hours. Download it promptly.
• Re-importing: Safe to do. Retrace deduplicates messages automatically.